Creep of the Week: Linda Harvey

BY D'ANNE WITKOWSKI

It's August, which means Summer will be over soon. If you're a parent, chances are that your kids spent part of their time off from school at a Summer camp. There are so many to choose from: performing arts camps, sports camps, science camps, yoga camps, Space Camp. There's even Plantation Camp in California where "everyone lives outside without electricity and works on a sustainable farm." I tried to go to their website, but it wasn't working. Go figure.

Anyway, regardless of what kind of camp you sent/are sending your kids to, I just wanted to give you a quick heads up: they're gay now.

One day you're sending your totally 100 percent heterosexual child off to have a camp adventure and the next you're picking up your totally 100 percent homosexual child. Because that's totally how sexuality works.

And we may have never known any of this were it not for Linda Harvey bravely speaking the truth on Molly Smith's right-wing radio show.

Harvey and Smith, who is the president of Cleveland Right to Life, discussed how going to camp puts kids at risk for gayness. Smith, referring to an article written by Harvey, says, "Same-sex hook ups can become a daring adventure at camp outs and sleep overs. Opportunity is everywhere where students of the same sex gather or socialize and is one of the reasons homosexuality has traditionally been taboo at schools camps and youth organizations."

Got that? The reason why people are against LGBTQ students being able to live their lives openly and without fear of harassment and discrimination is because if we start treating LGBTQ students decently then all of the straight kids will want to try it out. And so we need to keep boys away from boys and girls away from girls because otherwise "same-sex hook ups" are too tempting.

Let's allow Harvey to elaborate.

"What happens is any time there is any kind of same-sex environment - I do not mean same-sex homosexuality, I mean boys together doing things together, girls together," Harvey says. "It attracts the people that would take advantage of them, and then it will be someone of the same sex, so access is what these people want."

Okay, first of all I need to point out that Harvey says she doesn't mean homosexuality, but "boys together doing things together" sounds pretty gay.

Secondly, Harvey is employing the "gays and lesbians are predators" narrative. You know how gay kids are, they just wait to infiltrate an unsuspecting group of kids their same sex so they can persuade them all to join Team Gay.

Harvey then goes on to say that "so many kids are into pornography" and seems to imply that this is especially true for LGBTQ kids, which is what makes them so dangerous.

"Those may be the people that your kids are in a sleepover with or at camp with," says Harvey, "these kids who are already highly sexualized and nobody may know it, but it'll come out in the middle of the night."

On the one hand, this is ridiculous and insulting. LGBTQ kids are not creepy predators. If a lesbian teen signs up for an all girls robotics camp it's because she likes robots not because she's hoping to "reprogram" the girls around her.

On the other hand, if you remove the whole predatory subtext, then Harvey has a point. OF COURSE LGBTQ youth meet other youth and form relationships, sexual or otherwise at places like camps and schools. That's how ALL youth meet other people. It's called a social life. Apparently that's yet another thing that Harvey believes LGBTQ youth don't deserve.